This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO – Through the noise of the Wrigley Field crowd on Tuesday night, Cubs manager Craig Counsell could hear rookie Moisés Ballesteros shout as he took a pitch from hard-throwing Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering for a ball in a crucial moment.
“He really locked in,” Counsell said. “You heard him at one point say, ‘No!’, to the pitch as it’s coming in. That’s cool.”
After being down 0-2, Ballesteros went on to draw a bases-loaded walk – the first run of the night to spark a 7-4 win – and clapped his hands hard and yelled in the direction of the Cubs’ dugout as he flipped the bat away. He came off the bench as a pinch-hitter with two outs and the bags full in the fifth inning, and hardly looked like a 22-year-old rookie.
In fact, Ballesteros has looked calm and under control since reaching the Major Leagues last season. After the initial expected nerves of being in the big leagues, he has flashed the impressive offensive skills that helped him climb quickly up the organizational ladder. And he has continued to open eyes behind the scenes.
“He’s just a confident person, it seems like, in every way,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “In social settings or a team meeting or at the plate versus any kind of pitcher, he’s just someone that just exudes a lot of confidence. He’s not super loud about it or anything like that, but it seems like everything he does is with conviction and belief.
“That’s exactly what you want out of a player that’s establishing themselves in the big leagues. A lot of us are really good at acting on the field, right? That’s a part of it – presenting in a good way. But he’s someone who really seems like he’s living that out every single day.”
Ballesteros has a knack for putting the bat on the ball (his 88.2% contact rate on pitches in the zone was only a tick below Alex Bregman’s rate of 89.2%, entering Wednesday), but he combines that with an all-fields approach and power. Through his first 40 games in the Majors – 20 last year and 20 this season – he has slashed .333/.410/.529 with a 173 OPS+ (73% above league average).
Those numbers make it easy to see Ballesteros’ skills in the batter’s box. What is less visible is how the confidence Hoerner cited shows up in other ways. Counsell noted how Ballesteros has been willing to speak up in pregame meetings when discussing game strategy for an opposing pitcher or team.
“This is a group with a pretty high baseball IQ,” Counsell said. “And he’s able to add to the conversation. And that’s impressive.”
Ballesteros credited the veterans on the team for creating an environment that allows younger players to have the confidence to join those discussions.
“I feel excited to be learning from all the players. And I feel the respect from the older players,” Ballesteros said. “I feel excited when older players ask me like, ‘Hey, what would you do with this guy?’ Here, it’s more like a family. Every guy is together. Everyone – the veteran guys, the younger guys – they’re meshing with each other.”
And it is easy for teammates to embrace a young player who shows he can handle a big moment – such as Tuesday’s pinch-hit appearance in a raucous environment – with such a sense of calm.
“Bally did something that’s extremely difficult to do,” Cubs first baseman Michael Busch said. “Coming off the bench, facing a leverage arm in that situation. He got down in the count. And then to be able to work a walk and drive in our first run, that’s a very difficult thing to do. He’s that good.”